No-till farming does more than just improve soil quality and reduce erosion. It can help fight global warming too, a Purdue University study has found.

No-till fields in the study released 57 percent less nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas 310 more potent than carbon dioxide – than chisel-tilled fields and 40 percent less gas than fields tilled with moldboard plows.

The practice can also help save farmers money because it slows the breakdown of costly fertilizers in the soil.